DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) – “We certainly have a better car than eighth-place right now, so my gut ells me we need to go back racing and try to pick up some more spots. I think track position means a lot with all the lapped cars and it’s still tough to pass. You’ve got to time your passes out. Everybody in the top 10 is so equal, but I feel like our Discount Tire Ford is better than an eighth-place finish, but sometimes we’ve gotten greedy and it’s cost us four or five spots.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE WITH CARL? “You know the rain is coming. It sprinkled for 20 laps and we could see it on our windshield. He’s running for everything he’s worth. He doesn’t want to give up any spots and I want to get all I can. My car was tight. If my car would have been a little better, I could have gotten by him pretty easy. We ended up getting around him and it’s fun to race teammates like that. I just wish it was for first and second instead of sixth and seventh.” IS THIS THE BEST CAR YOU’VE HAD HERE? “Yeah. We had a great car in the fall last year and finished sixth, so this is equally as good. Track position is more important than it ever has been with the limited horsepower that we have and the top 10 is equal. When you’re passing lapped cars two or three a lap, it just makes it tough.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “I had a great car and I’m getting better and better about saving it until the end – saving the brakes and I even saved two sets of tires. We had a long ways to go when everybody pitted and we got off cycle. We had new tires sitting 13th and it was ours to have, but the weather didn’t cooperate. We sort of had a strategy of what we were gonna do, so this really bums us out because we had a lot better car than we’re we finished.” YOU TALK ABOUT SAVING BUT THAT’S HARD WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHEN THE RAIN IS COMING. “I looked at the radar and I saw that one clump that came through earlier today and I figured once that was gone we were pretty much free and clear, but that obviously wasn’t the case.”
BOBBY HAMILTON JR. – No. 25 Curly’s Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) – “We’re a top-10 car but we’re 17th because of the rain. I think we’re better than that, but I don’t think this is going anywhere. Overall, we put our tightest set (of tires) on right at the beginning just to get it out of the way and, of course, that was our longest run so that got us behind, but we’re just waiting on Mother Nature. We’re good if it goes back to green, but it’s pouring right now and I think we’re gonna end up 17th.”
KELLY BIRES – No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) – YOU GOT SOME REAR-END DAMAGE IN A WRECK THAT WASN’T YOUR FAULT. “Yeah, it’s a Bristol thing. There was a wreck ahead of me and I checked up, but the guy behind me drove through me. We were running solid there and I believe we would have been top 10 here, but that just got us behind. We had to take tires on that stop and then take fuel only the next time to try and get track position back. We didn’t expect it to go green that long and we got a lap down. Our biggest goal coming into this race was to just get out of it clean and to come out of it with a top-20 finish is OK because we can’t control somebody else running into us. It’s just Bristol. I know he didn’t mean to do it and I’m sure it won’t be the last time something like that happens here.”
MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion (Finished 19th) – “I’m pleased because I made it past lap 100 without tearing the fenders off. I’ve tried, but I haven’t done a very good job of it. We’re really excited. We want this race to restart because we feel like we’ve got something for them. I feel really comfortable in the car today and I think our team is really moving forward. We’re being aggressive and racy out there and that’s what you’ve got to do at Bristol. You’ve got to grab it by the teeth and not let go.” CAN YOU COMPARE WHERE YOU’RE AT NOW AT A PLACE LIKE THIS THAN A YEAR AGO? “I’m way more in control now. I feel like I’ve got some rhythm here and I’m able to absorb everything that’s going on in some chronological order at least in my head to not get too spun out, and that’s really hard to do here because everything is happening so fast. You’ve got to really know what’s important and what’s not. You’ve got to be able to run a really loose race car and ignore it. That’s the way it works.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Scotts Ford Fusion (Finished 14th) – “If it goes green again, we’re great. If it doesn’t, it’s not good. I really thought we’d be racing right now. I didn’t think this would stop us, so we’ve got fresh tires. Two guys in front of us do, but everyone else has 60-lap tires, so it could be good and the car is actually pretty good. We were just holding on with old tires and fell back a little bit.” YOU HAD A GOOD BATTLE WITH DAVID RAGAN. “Yeah, it was more fun for me holding him off than it was for him, who couldn’t get by. I knew we were racing to the rain and I just couldn’t let anybody go. I thought he’d get by me any second, but he kept getting shuffled. In hindsight, I probably should have just let him go to begin with, but that’s how it went.” HOW FRUSTRATING TO HAVE THIS STOP AND GO WITH THE RAIN? “That’s just part of it. I don’t like that part of it, but it’s the same for everyone.”